TREES 43 



a distance of TOO ft. from the parent stem, and one of 

 these at Oxford actually bore flowers.* 



Just beyond is one of the most singular trees in the Garden. 

 In the Maidenhair-tree, Ginkgo biloba, we have an example 

 of a tree of the remote geological past living in the present. 

 It has no near living relatives, but is the last survivor of an 

 ancient family which has been traced back in fossils to the 

 Primary Rocks. It might not have survived were it not for 

 the fostering care of generations of Buddhist monks. So far 

 as is known at present the Ginkgo is unknown in the wild 

 state, only as a cultivated and sacred tree planted in the 

 gardens of Chinese and Japanese Buddhist temples ; and were 

 it not for this the race might have become extinct. It has 

 plum-like seeds like Cycads, and, like them, motile male cells. 

 Ginkgos lived before insects, which have produced flowers 

 in plants, appeared in the world. The trunk diameter of this 

 tree was i ft. at i ft. from the ground in 1838: now it is 

 4 ft. 10 in. at 4 ft. About twenty years ago it looked as if it 

 were going to die, but it is healthy enough now. 



The Kentucky Coffee-tree, Gymnocladus canadensis, re- 

 markable for the stumpy character of the young wood, which 

 gives it in winter the appearance almost of a dead tree, was 

 a donation from Mr. Rogers of Balliol College, November 17, 

 1835. The wood has a value, and the fresh leaves macerated 

 and sweetened are recommended as a poison for house-flies. 



The climbers and wall plants against this side of the South 

 Wall are those which do well with a north aspect ; and here 

 we notice a recently acquired collection of brambles includ- 

 ing Rubus bifloruS) ichangensis, deliciosus, lasiostylis, parkeri, 

 flosculosus, henryi) and others. 



The neat-growing Azara microphylla from Chili, and 



Cotoneaster horizontalis from China, on either side of the 



Mexican Choisya ternata, will be sure to attract attention. 



TWO Sweet Bays, Laurus nobilis, sacred to priests, sacrifices, 



* Card. Chron. 1887, ii. p. 364. 



